The Fowl and the Egg

An egg wench from 2980 BC attempting, foolishly, to solve the paradox. Little did she know she would be called a witch and burned at the stake for attempting such foolishness.

The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” To ancient philosophers, the question about the first chicken or egg also evoked the questions of how life and the universe in general began. To Tarvu, this was a simple question that he had no trouble answering. Aristotle attempted to tackle the serious question in his musings and presented his answer to Tarvu after years of toil. Tarvu laughed him out of the room. Years later a crazed Aristotle, still distraught over not understanding the answer to the paradox that Tarvu had provided, would be arrested after attempting to poison his neighborhood's local cat population.

It is commonly believed that Tarvu originally suggested the answer to this paradox as a joke and only after further speculation did he realize that the answer was no joke at all. This almost lead to the creation of another paradox, The Jester. Almost.

Tarvu's answer begins as thus:

• A. What has wings, but cannot fly? Answer: A chicken (fowl).
• B. What will have wings, yet will never fly? Answer: An Egg (egg).
• Assuming A and B, then we must conclude that neither the egg nor the chicken will fly.
• Thus we have assumed the contrapositive and the premise is false. The chicken and the egg must therefore have arrived at the same time.

Tarvu used this paradox to escape the lair of the spider-mother and her broodlings in the Tarvu -- Now! childrens' series.